R Ashwin’s Response To Critics’ “Lost To Team That Didn’t Qualify For WC” Taunt At Indian Team

Fuming over certain Indian fans and experts’ ‘over-reaction’ to the management’s decision of benching Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in the ODI series against West Indies, Ravichandran Ashwin hasn’t held back. The veteran off-spinner, disappointed with the public sentiment over the absence of Rohit and Kohli in the ODI series, Ashwin jumped to the defence of coach Rahul Dravid and captain Rohit. The marquee spinner feels some people are just trying to find reasons to blame the captain-coach duo without understanding the extent of injuries the squad has at the moment.

“India lost the second ODI and immediately the trend in social media was – why so-and-so players played and why so-and-so players did not play. I seriously don’t understand why this outrage. Rohit and Virat didn’t play in the second ODI. Even in the first match, Rohit batted lower down the order. So the debate was around whether Rohit and Virat should have played,” Ashwin said in a video on his YouTube channel.

Ashwin even highlighted the sort of expectations fans have from the Indian team, expecting them to win almost every time they play.

“Some of them were perplexed at how we lost to a team that didn’t even qualify for the World Cup. Many people think that India’s only job in international cricket is to win World Cup. The main reason why we consider ourselves favorites to win the World Cup is because of the IPL,” the 36-year-old spinner went on to add.

Though Jasprit Bumrah is set to make his comeback, the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul are still undergoing rehab. Ashwin, hence, found plenty of logic in the rest given to Rohit and Kohli.

“Already we have so many players recovering at the NCA. Bumrah is back after a long hiatus. Prasidh Krishna is back too. So, we have so many injury problems. It seems like people are finding points to blame Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma just for the sake of it,” Ashwin added.

“They are trying different players now because they know what they went through during the last T20 World Cup. We didn’t have Ravindra Jadeja and Bumrah and we didn’t have many fast bowlers. That’s why we are trying different options before the ODI World Cup,” the off-spinner stated while defending Dravid and Rohit.